James Callaghan

James Callaghan (27 March 1912-26 March 2005) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 5 April 1976 to 4 May 1979, succeeding Harold Wilson and preceding Margaret Thatcher. Callaghan, a Labor Party politician who had previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, and Foreign Secretary, was infamous for his battles with trade unions and his presiding over the steep decline of the Labor Party. He was voted out of office in a vote of no confidence, and the Labor Party had disastrous general election results, losing to Thatcher's Conservative Party.

Biography
James Callaghan was born in Portsmouth, England on 27 March 1912, and he worked as a clerk in the Inland Revenue before joining the Royal Navy during World War II. He was elected as the Labor Party MP for Cardiff South in 1945, and he became Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Transport in 1947. In opposition, he gained experience on a variety of issues, first shadowing foreign affairs, and then becoming Labor's Treasury spokesperson. He lost the 1963 leadership election to Harold Wilson, but he served under Wilson as Chancellor as the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967. He was faced with strong pressure on the pound, so he oversaw the creation of a prices and incomes board, cuts in public spending, and the 1967 devaluation of the pound. From 1967 to 1970, he served as Foreign Secretary, and he was forced to deal with the emerging IRA violence in Northern Ireland and calls for immigration restrictions. After Labor's return to power in 1974, he became Foreign Secretary, and he succeeded Wilson as Prime Minister in 1976. He was handicapped by the lack of an overall majority, economic recession caused by the 1973 oil-price shock, and his unwillingness to overcome trade union hostility to his economic austerity measures. The disastrous outcomes of the referendums on Scottish and Welsh devolution triggered a successful vote of no confidence in Parliament in March 1979, which was followed by a general election. It was the large-scale trade union strikes of 1978-1979, popularly remembered as the "Winter of Discontent", that destroyed the party's popular image and foiled its political prospects for over a decade. His party was routed at the 1979 general elections, and he resigned as party leader a year later.